Wisconsin DOJ To Review National Guard Sexual Assault Investigations

Federal Report Found Some Sexual Assault Investigations By Guard Were Done Improperly

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Wisconsin National Guard members standing
Wisconsin National Guard (CC-BY-NC-ND)

The Wisconsin Department of Justice plans to review a series of sexual assault investigations from the Wisconsin National Guard after a federal report found many were conducted improperly.

An email from the National Guard Bureau obtained by The Cap Times says at least two accusers were told the DOJ would review some cases.

“If anybody has been deterred from reporting because of their concerns how those reporters would be handled by the Wisconsin National Guard, we want to encourage those people to reach out either to our office of crime victim services or the ombudsman who has been appointed by Gov. Evers. What we’re going to do is review those cases and determine where further investigation is appropriate,” Kaul told reporters at a press conference Tuesday.

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The National Guard Bureau is the agency that wrote the report that revealed multiple shortcomings in the Wisconsin Guard’s sexual misconduct reporting protocols. Most notably, those included commanders opening their own internal investigations into complaints rather than referring them to Army or Air Force criminal investigators as required by federal law and Department of Defense policy.